Pentagon Demands WikiLeaks ‘Return’ All Classified Documents

A Pentagon spokesman on Thursday demanded that the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks return and delete all the classified Defense Department documents in its possession, and stop soliciting new ones.

“The Defense Department demands that WikiLeaks return immediately to the U.S. government all versions of documents obtained directly or indirectly from the Department of Defense databases or records,” said spokesman Geoff Morrell, opening the Pentagon’s daily press briefing.

“WikiLeaks’s public disclosure last week of a large number of our documents has already threatened the safety of our troops, our allies and Afghan citizens who are working with us to help bring about peace and stability in that part of the world,” said Morrell. “Public disclosure of additional Defense Department classified information can only make the damage worse.

“The only acceptable course is for WikiLeaks to take steps immediately to return all versions of all of these documents to the U.S. government and permanently delete them from its website, computers and records.”

Wikileaks responded on Twitter by calling Morrell “obnoxious,” followed by a second tweet urging WikiLeaks supporters to donate to the organization. “Now is a good time to send WikiLeaks all your money!”

The statements ratchet up the tension between the U.S. government and WikiLeaks, which began in earnest with the May arrest of 22-year-old Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning. Manning has been charged with leaking classified information, including video of a deadly 2007 Army helicopter attack in Iraq that claimed the lives of a number of civilians. WikiLeaks had released that video under the title “Collateral Murder” in April 2010.

On July 25, WikiLeaks angered U.S. officials at the highest levels with it published a detailed and mostly-classified log of 77,000 events in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan from 2004 through 2009. The database, according to both the Pentagon and WikiLeaks, originated from the Defense Department’s Secret-level wide area network SIPRnet. Manning remains a “person of interest” in the leak, Morrell said Thursday.

Since the Afghan war logs were published, it’s emerged the records contain the names of some Afghan informants, who are now face potentially deadly reprisal from the Taliban, according to the Pentagon. In the wake of that discovery, WikiLeaks told the news website The Daily Beast that it was seeking the Pentagon’s help in screening a final 15,000 records from the same database before publishing them in a redacted form.

Morrell disputed that claim Thursday. “Wikileaks has made no such request directly to the Department of Defense,” he said.

Morrell also slammed WikiLeaks’ for a statement near the top of its submission page that claims submitting material to WikiLeaks is “protected by law.” Morrell called it a “brazen solicitation to U.S. government officials, including our military, to break the law” and said it was “materially false and misleading.”

“The Department of Defense therefore also demands that WikiLeaks discontinue any solicitation of this type,” he said.

WikiLeaks’ claim of legal protection is explained further down on its submission page as referring to legal protections in Sweden and Belgium, through which the sites’ electronic submissions are routed.

Asked if the Pentagon had any authority to act if WikiLeaks ignored its demands, Morrell responded “We will cross the next bridge when we come to it. … If doing the right thing isn’t good enough for them, we will figure out what alternatives we have to compel them to do the right thing.”

There may be more at stake for the U.S. government than the Afghan war logs.

Bradley Manning’s arrest came after he was turned in by an ex-hacker with whom he’d struck up an online friendship. In his chats with former hacker Adrian Lamo, Manning described leaking a database of 260,000 State Department diplomatic cables, and a classified Army event log from the war in Iraq covering 500,000 events from 2004 through 2009. WikiLeaks hasn’t published those purported leaks, and has denied receiving the diplomatic cables.

On Saturday, WikiLeaks published without comment a 1.4GB encrypted file named “insurance.” The file is more than 19 times the size of the Afghan war log.

In his chats, Manning did not mention leaking information from the war in Afghanistan.

Manning faces up to 52 years in prison under the current charges against him. Earlier this week, Republican congressman Mike Rogers of Michigan made news by arguing that Manning should be charged with treason and face the death penalty instead — an argument that is not supported by U.S. law. Supporters of Manning plan a rally at Quantico on Sunday.

Department of Defense photo by Cherie Cullen. Kim Zetter contributed to this report.